Friday, April 17, 2015

Tara Hills has written a piece for thescientificparent.org
chronicling her decision to become an anti-vaxxer and then return to
believing in vaccinations. She pens the piece from quarantine because
all seven of her children have recently been diagnosed with whopping
cough.

We’d had a games night at our house in March, my
brother-in-law had a full-blown cold, so when the kids started with a
dry cough a few days later I didn’t think much of it. But a week after
the symptoms started the kids weren’t improving, in fact they were
getting worse. And the cough. No one had a runny nose or sneezing but
they all had the same unproductive cough. Between coughing fits they
were fine.

Then a few days later at midnight I snapped. My youngest three
children were coughing so hard they would gag or vomit. I’d never seen
anything like this before. Watching our youngest struggle with this
choking cough, bringing up clear, stringy mucus – I had heard of this
before somewhere. My mom said I had it when I was a kid. I snapped into
‘something is WRONG’ mode. READ MORE

Kayleb Moon-Robinson is autistic. This school year is sixth grade for
him—at Linkhorne Middle School in Lynchburg, Virginia. In the fall, when
Kayleb was still 11 years old, he was admonished for bad behavior when he kicked a trash can.

A police officer assigned to the school witnessed the
tantrum, and filed a disorderly conduct charge against the sixth grader
in juvenile court.

Just weeks later, in November, Kayleb, who is African-American,
disobeyed a new rule — this one just for him — that he wait while other
kids left class. The principal sent the same school officer to get him.

“He grabbed me and tried to take me to the office,” said Kayleb, a
small, bespectacled boy who enjoys science. “I started pushing him away.
He slammed me down, and then he handcuffed me.”

The cop took Kayleb, in handcuffs, to juvenile court. The cop filed two charges: second misdemeanor disorderly conduct and felony assault on a police officer. Seriously. But, according to The Center for Public Integrity:

US Department of Education data analyzed by the Center for
Public Integrity show that Virginia schools in a single year referred
students to law enforcement agencies at a rate nearly three times the
national rate. Virginia’s referral rate: about 16 for every 1,000
students, compared to a national rate of six referrals for every 1,000
students. In Virginia, some of the individual schools with highest rates
of referral — in one case 228 per 1,000 — were middle schools, whose
students are usually from 11 to 14 years old. READ MORE

Anybody else worried about how seriously some of these guys are going to take this argument?

South Carolina wants to be able to continue to ban gays and lesbians
from marrying each other. They want to do that so much that they filed
an amicus brief
with the Supreme Court that they should continue to be able to do so.
In it, they make an "originalist" argument that if the Constitution is
read just as its drafters understood it, gays can be discriminated
against because women can be discriminated against. Mark Joseph Stern at
Slate has all the crazy.

Here’s the gist of South Carolina’s fascinatingly sexist
argument. The state wants to prove that the 14th Amendment—which
guarantees "equal protection of the laws" to every "person"—was not
intended to displace state marriage laws. And what did those laws look
like at the time? One major feature: In many states, married women were
not permitted to own property or enter into contracts and had no legal
existence apart from their husbands. According to South Carolina, the
framers of the 14th Amendment explicitly preserved the rights of
states to deprive married women of the ability to function independently
from her husband. This right to deprive married women of basic
liberties, South Carolina argues, is enshrined in the 10th Amendment and is not at all undercut by the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equality.

The crux of South Carolina’s brief, then, is this: If the 14th Amendment permits discrimination against married women,
it surely also allows discrimination against gay people who wish to
wed. In fact, according to South Carolina, the 14th Amendment forbids
only racial discrimination, leaving states free to disadvantage women
and gays in any way they wish. READ MORE

From The New York Times Editorial Board in a piece titled, "A New Phase in Anti-Obama Attacks":

It is a peculiar, but unmistakable, phenomenon: As Barack
Obama’s presidency heads into its twilight, the rage of the Republican
establishment toward him is growing louder, angrier and more
destructive.

Republican lawmakers in Washington and around the country have been
focused on blocking Mr. Obama’s agenda and denigrating him personally
since the day he took office in 2009. But even against that backdrop,
and even by the dismal standards of political discourse today, the tone
of the current attacks is disturbing. So is their evident intent — to
undermine not just Mr. Obama’s policies, but his very legitimacy as
president.

It is a line of attack that echoes Republicans’ earlier questioning
of Mr. Obama’s American citizenship. Those attacks were blatantly racist
in their message — reminding people that Mr. Obama was black,
suggesting he was African, and planting the equally false idea that he
was secretly Muslim. The current offensive is slightly more subtle, but
it is impossible to dismiss the notion that race plays a role in it. READ MORE

On October 20, 2014, something so egregious, so awful, so unjust took
place on the streets of Chicago that the city, already in a deep
deficit, is paying a family $5 million for us to never see
evidence of. On that night, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, surrounded by
officers who were waiting for a Taser, was shot 16 times.

It was filmed on a dash cam, but for the past six months, Chicago has
done everything in its power to keep that video private. Speaking to
the Chicago Sun-Times, the family attorney, Michael Robbins, said:

“I certainly expect that the officer will be indicted, and
not just the officer, but any officer, supervisor or lieutenant who took
part in covering this up and justifying what cannot be justified. This
was an execution of a young man that should have been— and could have
been—avoided."

After the shooting, a spokesman for the police stated that Laquan lunged
at the officers and caused them to fear for their lives, but the family and everyone who has seen the video
insists Laquan was doing quite the opposite, and was slowly walking
away when one single officer hit him with 16 different shots all over
his body. Otherwise, if the video showed a brave officer in imminent
danger, it's highly unlikely a grieving family would be about to receive
one of the largest settlements in the history of Chicago.

Employees of a Walmart in Brandon that abruptly closed
Monday were among more than 2,000 employees nationwide who learned
almost simultaneously they were being laid off.
In a nearly identical manner at every store, Walmart corporate
officials visited the five locations, called an impromptu meeting in the
back of the store and told employees that the stores would be closing
that evening.

The locations include stores in Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and California.
Even stranger is that Walmart doesn't seem to be ready to do anything
about said "plumbing."

According to Hillsborough County, Florida, Walmart didn’t
notify the county’s permit department either. No one there has heard a
peep from Walmart about any major repairs.

A Walmart official also told 10 News repairs haven't started
yet because they still need to organize the store after so many
shoppers came out to take advantage of closing deals.
She added each of these five stores closed, there have been upwards
of 100 plumbing or pipe incidents in just the past two years. That, and
that alone, is the only connection, according to Walmart officials.

This past Monday I wrote a Daily Kos article
about the Republican talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh, being dropped,
after 22 years, from the Indianapolis radio station WIBC. Many other
news /opinion sites covered the story, as well as IBJ (Indianapolis
Business Journal). Most of the stories basically said the move was a
simple change in direction:

Officials for WIBC parent Emmis Communications this month
notified Los Angeles-based syndicator Premiere Networks that it would
not extend its deal to air Limbaugh’s show.

Here's where the IBJ piece
was a little different. Emmis' local market manager, Charlie Morgan,
said the mega company's decision to drop Limbaugh was much more than a
simple change - and they have been contemplating this move for 18 months.

While Morgan expects some WIBC listeners to be “hugely
disappointed” by the change, he said losing Limbaugh could open up the
station to more advertising opportunities.

"There are some—primarily national—advertisers that refuse to air commercials during Limbaugh’s show, Morgan explained. "

Emmis officials began notifying its advertisers of the change Monday.

And there it is - bonafide proof once again, that the boycott against
Rush Limbaugh and his sponsors is not only working, it's remarkably
effective. It's changing the face of talk radio altogether. Right now
the biggest problem with radio - is Rush Limbaugh. And the hundreds of thousands of Limbaugh boycotters couldn't be more pleased.

Advertisers can't handle the pressure and loss of customers. Most companies, other than those run by Republican Dittoheads,
are avoiding Rush Limbaugh like the plague. This was not the case in
2012.

That year, self-proclaimed 'El Rushbo' enjoyed sitting on the
king's throne of Conservative 'hate radio' with a plethora of large
lucrative sponsors. That all changed after he called an unknown college
student a 'slut' and 'prostitute'
while she advocated for insurance-paid birth control at a congressional
hearing. Once Limbaugh's rant hit social media and went viral, huge sponsors like Ford, GM, McDonald's, Subway, Carbonite…began
to pull their ads immediately after seeing the public's outrage.

Yes,
the good old days are long gone for Limbaugh, though his camp begs to
differ and continues to make lame attempts to derail the boycott
Limbaugh used tojoke about. Also, his PR team is now blitzing search engines like Google with 10 or more RushLimbaugh.com stories per day - from the same show. Guess they need those page views to generate revenue because it sure isn't coming from sponsors. READ MORE

While Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, state pension
officials committed at least $1.7 billion to financial firms whose
executives were “Pioneer” fundraisers for his brother’s presidential
campaigns. To achieve Pioneer status, the fundraisers had to amass at
least $100,000 worth of bundled contributions to one of George W. Bush’s
campaigns.
An International Business Times analysis of Florida government
documents and a list of George W. Bush’s bundlers compiled by Public
Citizen found that 11 firms that received new Florida pension
investments under Jeb Bush were Pioneers. IBTimes also analyzed data
from the Florida Division of Elections and Political Moneyline to
determine how much money executives from those firms donated directly to
Jeb Bush’s campaigns, George W. Bush’s campaigns, the Republican
National Committee and the Republican Party of Florida between 1998 and
2006. READ MORE

In 2008, the campaign of multi-millionaire John McCain tried to brand Barack Obama as "elitist" and "out of touch" and "worried about the price of arugula." Four years later, Mitt Romney—the
GOP presidential nominee worth at least a quarter of a billion
dollars—declared that President Obama "reminded me of Marie Antoinette."
Now, Politico tells us, the GOP is planning to "turn Hillary into Mitt Romney":

Republicans are readying a familiar template: The
out-of-touch plutocrat who lives in a world of private planes,
chauffeured vehicles and million-dollar homes.

But the Republicans' pathetic populist ploy is backfiring. After all,
the now-wealthy Clintons have long supported policies to help working
Americans. And while Hillary Clinton has put her money where her mouth
is by backing increases in the taxes her family pays, the GOP and its
2016 candidates are—as always—calling for a massive, Treasury draining,
tax cut windfall for the wealthy.

Capitals Gains Taxes. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention,
former President Bill Clinton explained what Republican control of the
White House would mean for Americans' tax bills. "They'll hurt the
middle class and the poor and put the future on hold to give tax cuts to
upper-income people who've been getting it all along."

Four years later, the GOP's declared candidates are once again proving him right. Both Rand Paul and Marco Rubio would repeal the estates and gift taxes, while reducing the rate on capital gains and dividend income to zero.

And there he goes, heading off Chris Christie at the
fundraising pass! Folks, I don't have to tell you why this is a shitty
idea -- you already know, right?

April 17, 2015 MANCHESTER, NH—Jeb Bush grabbed one of the
third rails of American politics on Friday, declaring that the
retirement age for Social Security should be raised and "in relatively
short order."

"I think we need to raise the retirement age, not for people that are
already nearing, receiving Social Security, or already on it, but raise
it gradually, over a long period of time for people that are just
entering the system," Bush said. "And I think we need to do that in
relatively short order." READ MORE

Like most right wingers and Republicans out there, Fox
regular Charles Krauthammer really hopes that most Americans have
collective amnesia and can't remember anything that happened before the
day that President Obama took office and just what kind of a mess he had
to contend with coming in.

During a discussion on this Wednesday's Special Report with Bret Baier, host Baier asked his panel members, Krauthammer, Charles Lane and Steve Hayes about President Obama's statement this week that he's cut the deficit by two-thirds,
despite the right wing's constant efforts to portray him as a "tax and
spend liberal." Initially Krauthammer was unprepared to go after
President Obama, but after his cohorts Hayes and Lane weighed in,
Krauthammer came back with this lame attack.

Charles Krauthammer weighed in on "Special Report"
tonight about President Barack Obama's recent comments regarding the
federal budget deficit. [...]
Krauthammer said that what Obama did with the deficit is "completely unprecedented." READ MORE

While states and cities across the country are rushing to pass body camera legislation that primarily benefits police, a California Assembly panel approved what may be the most intelligent and thoughtful legislation yet on police-worn body cameras:

Despite opposition from law enforcement groups, a state
Assembly panel approved legislation Tuesday that would set strict rules
for police officers wearing body cameras, including a prohibition on
officers reviewing video footage before they make their initial
statement on use-of-force incidents.

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) said she introduced the
measure to “to ensure the public’s trust in law enforcement” after a
series of recent police shootings of unarmed African American men.

The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 5-1 to approve the
measure, which sets statewide standards for use by law enforcement
agencies that decide to require their officers to wear body cameras. READ MORE

It feels like open season on black men in America and I'm
outraged. In fact, all Americans are at risk when bad actors in law
enforcement use their guns instead of their heads. Despite bipartisan
nationwide calls for action and despite my bills to reform the broken
grand jury process, hold police accountable, and end militarization—and
despite my colleagues' bills to encourage body cameras—this Congress
does nothing. No hearings, no blue ribbon commissions, no nothing.

These were the frustrated words of Rep. Hank Johnson yesterday on the
floor of the House of Representatives. Johnson is right. How could it be
that these constant deaths by American law enforcement grip the nation
but fall on deaf ears in Congress? How could the names of our loved ones
daily be the top trending topic in the world, but those who represent
us act as if everything is just fine in America?

Basically, a HUGE part of the problem with trying to have any rational
discussion about tax policy is that there's a huge number of people who
don't have a basic understanding of what "marginal tax rates" are.

To put it simply, there's a whole lot of people out there,
including some who are very intelligent and/or successful professional
types, who believe that if their income nudges them over into the
next-higher tax bracket by even $1.00, that this somehow means that the entire amount they owe in taxes goes up to that percentage. READ MORE

Former Philadelphia police officer Jeffrey Walker was once hailed as one
of "Philadelphia's finest"—participating in well-publicized drug raids.
That is, until he was busted by the FBI:

Fifteen years later, an FBI case revealed a different
Jeffrey Walker, then a member of the Narcotics Field Unit. Busted in a
sting in May 2013 - the FBI caught him stealing money from a drug dealer
- Walker pleaded guilty and began cooperating with federal
investigators.

Walker, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing for his
February 2014 guilty plea in federal court, faces a maximum of life
behind bars.

In the meantime, he is expected to be a star witness this week in the
federal trial against six Philadelphia narcotics officers arrested with
his help: Thomas Liciardello, Perry Betts, John Speiser, Michael
Spicer, Linwood Norman - Walker's longtime partner on the narcotics unit
- and Brian Reynolds, Walker's old "Robin."

Fox News' Jeanine Pirro has a show called Justice with Judge Jeanine—because
nothing says "legitimate legal council" like having your first name
cutely used in the title of a television show. She took a moment to do
the Fox equivalent of going to the phones by reading the results of a Fox News' poll that 15 angry racists in a shed filled out online.

We asked, do police need to be retrained on how to be sensitive to the minority community? (She air quotes the word "minority community.")
(Dramatic pause with huge audio breath)
Overwhelming response was in favor of law enforcement.

First off, in "favor of law enforcement" wasn't an answer.
"Training" should be a positive thing for anyone in any field; but we
know what you meant, Jeanine. Second, did Jeanine air quote "minority
community" because she's a secret reverse racist? I mean, in Ferguson,
Missouri, there is such a large "minority community" that they make up the majority of Ferguson. Where did all of these minorities come from? They're all over the place!
READ MORE

His idea bubbled into reality on Monday afternoon, when Mr.
Price surprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over
the next three years to raise the salary of even the lowest-paid clerk,
customer service representative and salesman to a minimum of $70,000.

“Is anyone else freaking out right now?” Mr. Price asked after the
clapping and whooping died down into a few moments of stunned silence.
“I’m kind of freaking out.”

Bob Bates, the 73-year-old Tulsa reserve deputy who was recently arrested
for shooting and killing 44-year-old Eric Harris, gave his first public
interview on Friday morning with Matt Lauer of the Today Show. The man
is clearly getting terrible legal advice. Allowed to ramble on, Bates
not only physically demonstrated for Matt Lauer just how ridiculous it
was to confuse his firearm with a Taser (see the video below the fold),
but he continued to advance a central lie about his training.

In speaking with Lauer, Bates said that the only person who is
claiming his training records were falsified is a police officer who is
currently in prison for murder. This isn't true. Cole Crittenden, a former professional wrestler turned Tulsa cop,
is in jail for murder right now. It was actually Cole Crittenden who
signed off on the training records for Bates—which should raise
suspicion all by itself.

However, I contacted Dylan Goforth, a reporter
with the Tulsa World newspaper that broke the story
on officers being disciplines and reassigned when they refused to
falsify records for Bates. Goforth said that Crittenden is not the
newspaper's source, but current employees of the Tulsa Sheriff's Office
who are extremely afraid for their safety are the sources for the
information.
The Justice Department needs to intervene in this case immediately.
See the full interview below the fold. READ MORE

Thursday, April 16, 2015

NORTH
CHARLESTON, S.C. — In a departure from the way most cases are handled,
the chief justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina on Tuesday
appointed a judge from outside North Charleston to oversee the case
against the former police officer, Michael T. Slager, who has been
charged with murder in the shooting of Walter L. Scott, an unarmed man
who fled after being pulled over for a traffic stop on April 4.

Chief
Justice Jean Hoefer Toal ordered Judge Clifton B. Newman of South
Carolina Circuit Court on Tuesday to preside over all legal matters in
the case and to retain jurisdiction “regardless of where he may be
assigned to hold court.” Judge Newman, a former prosecutor based in
Kingstree, about 75 miles north of Charleston, is one of only five
African-American Circuit Court judges in the state.

CHICAGO (AP) — Months after a teenager was shot 16 times by a Chicago
police officer, the city is still refusing to release the dash-cam
video of the fatal shooting and didn't even show it to aldermen
Wednesday before they approved a $5 million settlement with the family.

The
October 2014 shooting death of Laquon McDonald hasn't generated the
same kind of national attention as other recent high-profile
confrontations involving officers. After some, in such places as South
Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona, video was released that quickly went
viral.

In approving a settlement even before McDonald's family
filed a lawsuit, some members of the Chicago City Council disagreed on
whether releasing the video could spark the kind of angry protests seen
elsewhere. While Danny Solis said making it public could "fan the
flames," fellow Alderman Howard Brookins said fear of demonstrations or
riots shouldn't drive the decision.

"I need this to stop, (and) if you don't show the video and this
continues to happen then we're still heading down that path," he said.

Authorities
say McDonald was wielding a knife and refused to drop it when officers
followed him for several blocks. Another officer who responded to a call
for backup fired the fatal shots. That officer, who hasn't been
identified, has been stripped of his police powers and put on desk duty,
but no decision has been made on whether he'll face criminal charges. READ MORE

Police officers fatally shot a man who led them on a chase Wednesday morning in northeast Harris County.

According to a Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesman, the chase
began about 10:40 a.m. in the Crosstimbers area of US-59. Houston Police
tried to pull over the driver of a blue Chrysler 300 due to "suspicious
activitiy," including two unsafe lane changes. As they approached the
car, the driver fled.

A chase ensued through northeast Houston along Beltway 8 before the
driver exited at Wallisville Road and eventually ran through an
intersection at Castlegory Road, striking two vehicles.

The driver got out of the car and the officers told him to raise his
hands, officials said. He then appeared to reach back inside the
vehicle, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. That's when it
appears, deputies said, that two police officers opened fire on him,
firing 10-12 rounds. The man died at the scene. READ MORE

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Likely Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush released this little gem earlier today, prior to Hillary Clinton's announcement
that she's throwing her hat in the the ring for 2016. I don't know
about anyone else, but all I can see when I watch this clip is his
brother's face looking back at me saying this:

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it's possible to pretend you're a police officer
if you donate enough to the police department. And in Tulsa, a wealthy
73-year old insurance executive donated a lot to the police department, and found himself deputized and part of the police department's reserve deputy program.
On Friday, that wealthy insurance executive shot and killed an unarmed black man. By accident, he says. It was a mistake is all. He meant to use the Taser and got the gun out instead.New York Daily News:

“He shot me! He shot me, man. Oh, my god. I’m losing my
breath,” Eric Harris says as he struggles on the ground following the
April 2 shooting, which flew under the radar until video emerged a week
later.

“F--- your breath,” a callous officer can be heard saying. “Shut the f--- up!”
Reserve Deputy Robert Bates, 73, (below) shouted “Taser! Taser!”
before pulling the trigger on his gun, firing a round into Harris.

“I shot him!” the former policeman says, dropping his gun. “I’m sorry.”
Bates was assisting other deputies who were trying to take Harris
into custody after the felon fled from police during a sting operation,
the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office’s said. READ MORE

Ten days after it was announced that Eric Harris, a 44-year-old African-American Tulsa resident, was shot and killed by police, a body camera video was released of the entire incident. Its cold-hearted horror and depravity have shocked the world.
In the video, seen in full below the fold, Eric Harris surrenders
after being chased by police. Within seconds he is shot. Shocked that he
has been shot, Harris is at first stunned, then realizes he is
struggling to breathe and is dying.

"He shot me. He shot me, man. Oh my God, I'm losing my breath."

Harris' face was slammed to the ground with a knee on his head from
another officer, and what followed may be the most heinous words an
officer, or anyone at all for that matter, could ever utter to a dying
man: READ MORE

What’s the new frontier in scientific denial? Earthquake denial! First,
fossil fuels help change the atmosphere, now they’re causing
earthquakes. It’s official, this isn’t just some crackpot conspiracy
theory designed to undermine the oil industry. The USGS and loads of scientists confirm that the industry practice of injecting oil and gas wastewater deep underground is causing earthquakes.
Something must be up when Oklahoma now has more earthquakes than California. Speaking
of California, even though we have naturally-occurring earthquakes, the
Golden State isn’t immune from the ravages of the oil and gas
industry. (Or the ravages of bumbling regulators, depending on which
part of the story you pursue.) Hundreds of oil wastewater disposal wells
have pumped toxic filth into aquifers that had previously been fit for human consumption. Oh yeah, and there’s some kind of drought thing going on, too.

And now that the oil industry in California has pumped their sludge into our precious aquifers, they are kindly offering to water our crops—
at cost, no less. Such a deal! The confluence of man-made earthquakes
and spoiled aquifers got me thinking about environmental apocalypse for
some reason. That’s how Three-eyed Billy was born. Enjoy the cartoon and
be sure to investigate some of the links behind the animation. READ MORE AND SEE THE VIDEO

I find it particularly disturbing the way that we try to
find excuses for killings, the way that we seek to deprecate a person
when they have been killed rather than insisting that they deserved to
remain among the living.

For me, there is only one issue in the Walter Scott case: he is dead,
and that cannot be undone. And not only was he killed, but he was
killed in a most dishonorable way: shot in the back as he fled. So, for
me there is only one question: Should the dead man be dead? Is there
anything, under American jurisprudence and universal moral law, that
justifies the taking of this man’s life?

Mr. Blow points out that neither the traffic stop nor the ensuing charges that would have been filed (resisting arrest, child support) come with a death sentence. READ MORE

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the quintessential definition of white privilege.
Somehow, police found it in their hearts, in spite of being punched
in the face, put into headlocks, and even shot in a full-on battle
royale parking lot melee, to use restraint that black folk across
America could only dream of in a far-off fairytale land.

Arizona investigators have released dramatic video of a
Walmart parking lot brawl that left a police officer wounded, one man
dead, and reportedly involved members of a Christian family band.

Enoch Gaver, 21, was killed in the fight in the town of Cottonwood,
and suspect David Gaver, 28, was shot in the stomach and taken into
custody. Police Sergeant Jeremy Daniels was hit in the leg by a bullet
fired during the melee.

The police dashcam video, released Friday, shows Cottonwood Police
approaching the group of eight people -- all identified as members of
the Gaver family -- around a large SUV in a Walmart parking lot on March
21.

From the files of "That's a law?" comes a story out of Milledgeville, GA. Brittany Cartrett had recently received the sad news that five weeks into her pregnancy she had miscarried.

"So we made the decision to not do a D&C and to get a
medicine. So he said I'm going to give you this medicine, you'll take
it, and it will help you to pass naturally so that you don't have to go
the more invasive route", said Brittany Cartrett.
The doctor's office called the Milledgeville Walmart to fill the
prescription but they were told no and they were not given a reason.

They found another place to fill that prescription but when Cartrett
went to the original Walmart pharmacy to get another prescription she
had there, she asked the pharmacist:

"So we found another place to fill it but I still had to go
up there to get another prescription so when I went up there she asked
if I had any questions about this prescription I said no I don't but I
do have a question about the other one. And she looks at my name and she
says oh, well...I couldn't think of a valid reason why you would need
this prescription", Cartrett said.

Pretty amazing, right? The pharmacist gets to veto the doctor. Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality of "refusal clauses," sometimes euphemistically called "conscience clauses." READ MORE

[Robert Mercer], a reclusive Long Islander who started at
I.B.M. and made his fortune using computer patterns to outsmart the
stock market, emerged this week as a key early bankroller of Mr. Cruz’s
surprisingly fast campaign start. He is believed to be the main donor
behind a network of four “super PACs” supporting Mr. Cruz that reported
raising $31 million just a few weeks into his campaign. [...]

Mr. Mercer does not have the name recognition of fellow Republican
financiers like the Koch brothers or Sheldon Adelson, but he has spent
more than $15 million since 2012 in support of conservative political
campaigns and causes, donating to a number of candidates who had never
even met him.

You cannot run for president without a sugar daddy. Unless, like Mitt
Romney, you are your own sugar daddy. Newt had his Adelson, and the Koch
brothers have raised many a candidate from larva to legislator, and Ted
Cruz can run for president only because a hedge fund manager somewhere
in America has given him his blessing. READ MORE

It is hard to remember Bill Maher being so outclassed in a discussion as
he was on today's Real Time panel. Fareed Zakaria made so many
consecutive intelligent points that unlike other guests on the same subject,
Bill Maher was unable to interrupt. One must give kudos to Bill Maher
however for bringing Fareed Zakaria to the panel after Zakaria
intellectually ridiculed the oversimplification and naive interpretation
of the state of Islam today by both Maher and Sam Harris in
his Washington Post piece “Let’s be honest, Islam has a problem right now”

Bill Maher segued from a discussion about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's
possible death sentence to Maher's recent attacks on Islam. "Which get's
us back to the idea of Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas," Bill
Maher said. "Fareed?"

Fareed Zakaria was ready. "As you know Bill, I have written a lot
about the problem in Islam," Fareed Zakaria said. "In fact I wrote about
them well before you were talking about it because I was focused on
that stuff." In other words Bill, you are the new kid on the block.

Zakaria continued. "My problem with the way you approach it is, I
don't think you are going to reform a religion by telling 1.6 billion
people -- most of whom are just devout people, who get some inspiration
from that religion and go about their daily lives -- I don't think you
are going to change the religion by saying 'Your religion is the mother
lode of bad ideas. It's a terrible thing. Shape it up and change it'."
Bill Maher's audience busted out in applause for Fareed Zakaria's
statement as he continued. "I think frankly you are going to make a lot
of news for yourself and you are going to get a lot of applause lines
and joke lines out of it. But if you really want to change those people.
If you want to change that religion then what you have to do is push
for reform but also with some form of respect for the spiritual values
that people take."

Fareed Zakaria then attempts to teach a form of sophisticated empathy
that Bill Maher and many Atheist, Christians, and others lack. "I am
not a religious guy. But all I am telling you is that I know that word
and if you tell everybody 'you suck, your religion sucks, clean it up'
then its going to get their backs up against the wall."

Bill Maher comes back with the generalization of Islam's intolerance
of women and gays. Again Zakaria reminds him that does not apply to the
1.6 billion Muslims. He schools Bill Maher on Indonesia, the largest
Muslim country which is also very tolerant of minorities and have been
as peaceful as any other country. READ MORE

A mentally ill woman who died after a stun gun was used on
her at the Fairfax County jail in February was restrained with handcuffs
behind her back, leg shackles and a mask when a sheriff’s deputy
shocked her four times, incident reports obtained by The Washington Post
show.

This woman was Natasha McKenna, a petite mother of a young child. Any
explanation as to why it was acceptable to use a Taser four times on a
woman whose hands are handcuffed behind her back, legs restrained, with a
mask on is completely bogus.

Numerous experts said the use of a stun gun on a fully
restrained prisoner was an unreasonable use of force, particularly in a
jail setting where a person is unlikely to flee. They also said Tasers
are not recommended for use on the mentally ill, that even the Taser
manufacturer warns against using them on people in a state of “excited
delirium,” and that using a stun gun more than three times is thought to
be above the threshold for use on a single person.

“She wasn’t a threat; she wasn’t going anywhere; she was restrained,”
said Richard Lichten, a use-of-force expert and former jail official in
Los Angeles. “It feels excessive, unnecessary and out of policy, based
on what you’re telling me.” READ MORE

“If courts rule that same-sex marriage is a civil right,
then, people like you and me who believe children need moms and dads
will be treated like bigots and racists.”

Well, a post is circulating on Facebook that suggests there may be
something to that. After years and years of heterosexists freely
bullying gay people in public, the tables may be turning, even in Ohio,
not exactly a hotbed of progress on LGBT issues.

A gay man visited to a popular late night pizza truck in Columbus,
Ohio. While waiting in chilly outdoor line, he dared to hold hands with
his—friend? boyfriend? he doesn't say—say companion. And this attracted
the attention of an offended straight person, who told him to "cut [the] gay shit out."
And for a long time, these sorts of confrontations often end with the
gay person visiting an emergency room. But not so this time... In the poster's own words, via Facebook:

Earlier this morning, Fox broadcast the results of a USA Today/Gallup
poll on whether Americans believe their states should take away
collective bargaining rights for public sector unions.

As you can see from the chart on the right, the poll
showed that the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose
union-busting, with 61% against taking away collective bargaining rights
and only 33% in favor.

But that's not what Fox told their audience. In fact, Fox claimed the poll showed Americans supported
union-busting. To accomplish this, they simply reversed the numbers. As
you can see in the screenshot at the top of the post, they claimed 61%
supported taking away collective bargaining rights and just 33%
supported it. That, of course, is a mirror image of the truth.

This wasn't just some simple Chyron slip, an example of fat-fingering on a live broadcast. Fox & Friends
co-host Brian Kilmeade also used the fake numbers as evidence to take
the side of union-busters, claiming most Americans sided with Walker's
position, not against him. READ MORE

It's a seriously fucked up new world in Washington, DC.
A Senate subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, chaired
by Sen. Bernie Sanders, held a hearing Tuesday on the “human toll and
budget consequences” of senior hunger. Panelists shared tales of woe
from older Americans unable to get enough food, and urged increased
funding for nutrition programs under the Older Americans Act of 1965.

This might have been non-controversial a few years ago, but not with
the Tea Party in town. The hearing produced a fierce debate between
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Sen. Rand Paul, the
prototypical Tea Partier, about whether the government should even
perform simple tasks like feeding hungry senior citizens....

Mary Jane Koren, a geriatrician and vice-president of the
Commonwealth Fund, noted that seniors often suffer health problems and
are put in nursing homes after falling down. Poor nutrition leads to
decreased muscle strength, meaning a higher chance of falling—and weaker
seniors are more likely to be gravely injured in such a fall. Koren
noted that by 2020, the annual cost of medical care for seniors who fall
is expected to reach $54.9 billion—many magnitudes more than the
approximately $2 billion per year the federal government spends on
nutrition assistance for senior citizens.

You'd think a tribute to one of the greatest leaders in
modern history would be controversy-free, but no. The statement from Ted
Cruz on his Facebook page:

Nelson Mandela will live in history as an inspiration for
defenders of liberty around the globe. He stood firm for decades on the
principle that until all South Africans enjoyed equal liberties he would
not leave prison himself, declaring in his autobiography, 'Freedom is
indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all
of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.' Because
of his epic fight against injustice, an entire nation is now free.
We mourn his loss and offer our condolences to his family and the people of South Africa.

Cue the crazies. Here is a glimpse at the top-rated comments on the post:

Read Meryl Streep’s introduction of Hillary Clinton during the recent 2012 Women in the World conference:
Two years ago when Tina Brown and Diane von Furstenberg first
envisioned this conference, they asked me to do a play, a reading,
called – the name of the play was called Seven. It was taken from
transcripts, real testimony from real women activists around the world. I
was the Irish one, and I had no idea that the real women would be
sitting in the audience while we portrayed them. So I was doing a pretty
ghastly Belfast accent. I was just – I was imitating my friend Liam
Neeson, really, and I sounded like a fellow. (Laughter). It was really
bad.

So I was so mortified when Tina, at the end of the play, invited the
real women to come up on stage and I found myself standing next to the
great Inez McCormack. (Applause.) And I felt slight next to her, because
I’m an actress and she is the real deal. She has put her life on the
line. Six of those seven women were with us in the theater that night.
The seventh, Mukhtaran Bibi, couldn’t come because she couldn’t get out
of Pakistan. You probably remember who she is. She’s the young woman who
went to court because she was gang-raped by men in her village as
punishment for a perceived slight to their honor by her little brother.
All but one of the 14 men accused were acquitted, but Mukhtaran won the
small settlement. She won $8,200, which she then used to start schools
in her village. More money poured in from international donations when
the men were set free. And as a result of her trial, the then president
of Pakistan, General Musharraf, went on TV and said, “If you want to be a
millionaire, just get yourself raped.”

But that night in the theater two years ago, the other six brave
women came up on the stage. Anabella De Leon of Guatemala pointed to
Hillary Clinton, who was sitting right in the front row, and said, “I
met her and my life changed.” And all weekend long, women from all over
the world said the same thing: READ MORE

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Ending two years of speculation and coy denials, Hillary Rodham Clinton
announced on Sunday that she would seek the presidency for a second
time, immediately establishing herself as the likely 2016 Democratic
nominee..

“I’m running for president,” she said with a smile near the end of a two-minute video released just after 3 p.m.

“Everyday
Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion,” Mrs.
Clinton said. “So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote — because it’s
your time. And I hope you’ll join me on this journey.”

The
announcement came minutes after emails from John D. Podesta, Mrs.
Clinton’s campaign chairman, alerting donors and longtime Clinton
associates to her candidacy.

Mr. Podesta said that Mrs. Clinton would meet soon with voters in Iowa and host a formal kickoff event some time next month. READ MORE

On April 4, Feidin Santana was on the phone, walking to work
in North Charleston, South Carolina, when an event that would soon grip
the nation happened just a few feet away from his path. Knowing what we
know now—that Officer Michael Slager murdered Walter Scott in cold blood and attempted to frame him
by planting a stun gun on him—it's increasingly clear that Feidin
Santana acted with extreme bravery when he filmed what turned out to be
the worst thing he's ever witnessed.
Now, Feidin has real concerns for his own safety:

"I won't deny that I knew the magnitude of this, and I even
thought about erasing the video," Santana said in an interview on
MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes" Wednesday.
"I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger. I
thought about erasing the video and just getting out of the community,
you know Charleston, and living some place else," the 23-year-old said.
"I knew the cop didn't do the right thing."

In an interview with TODAY's Matt Lauer on Thursday, Santana said: "I'm still scared."
"I say life changed in a matter of seconds. I never thought this
would happen, that I would be a witness," he told TODAY's Matt Lauer in
an exclusive interview Thursday. "I'm still scared."

Before the public ever saw the video, Santana went to the police station
to turn it in, but changed his mind and left. After seeing that the
police were telling lies in the media about the shooting, he found
Scott's family and turned the video over to them, as you can read below the fold. READ MORE

On April 4, North Charleston, South Carolina, Police Officer Michael
Slager shot and killed Walter Scott. Seemingly unaware that he was being
filmed, Slager, within seconds of shooting eighr shots at the back of
Scott, began spinning a web of lies to protect himself from the awful
truth that he just executed a man in cold blood.

On a rainy Wednesday, 150 students and alumni staged a walkout at
Dowling Catholic High School located in West Des Moines. The school's
administration opted out of hiring substitute teacher (and Dowling
alumnus) Tyler McCubbin after learning he was gay on social media.

The walkout by about 150 students happened about 1:20 p.m. despite the rain outside.
Students signed a petition "against Dowling leadership's hiring
policies as discriminatory against individuals based on sexual
orientation."

Students led multiple prayers during the event. A handful of Dowling
parents also were in attendance. They told KCCI they are proud their
children took a stand against what they call an unjust hiring practice.

Some students supported the school's decision. But many came out against it.

"Our community should know that we care and that the choices
of our school leaders and our diocese leaders don't directly reflect
what we believe as students and it just makes me so happy that we can
show our community that," said Grace Mumm, a sophomore who helped
organize the walkout. READ MORE

The Tea Party of Miami put up a convincing demo last week to
oppose a 'land grab' that would see 46,000 acres of sugar farm land
restored for Everglades conservation. Just one problem - the
'protestors' were actors each being paid $75 for the two-hour shift.

Last week, South Florida Water Management District held a meeting about
the possible purchase of 46,000 acres of land that sits to the south of
Lake Okeechobee, currently owned by U.S. Sugar and residents.

The intention is to use the land to recreate a large area of
the Everglades ecosystem on the former farmland, and create a 26,000
acre system of lakes to store and remediate seriously contaminated
run-off water from sugar farms, and so keep the nitrogen and
phosphorus-rich water out of lakes, water courses, wetlands, springs and
public water supply.
Thanks to the surfeit of nutrients, huge areas of open water and
wetlands are regularly afflicted by outbreaks of stinking green slime -
and the water district has come under growing pressure to act to stop
the pollution and its severe consequences on local people and the
Everglades.

The protest took place last Thursday outside the South Florida Water
Management District and was staged by the Tea Party of Miami and Florida
Citizens Against Waste—a group that, according to the Palm Beach Post, "has no contact information on its website and is not registered to do business in Florida."
The call for actors to appear at the protest originally appeared on
Facebook—although they have since deleted it. Luckily, some folks took
screenshots before the post was taken down.

Cue a mysterious post on the Facebook page of the Broward
Acting Group headed "Political Really Protestors Needed!!" and offering
$75 each (no breakfast) for up to 40 actors to show up at the water
district on 2nd April from 8.30 to 10.30 am:
"Details: Basically to stand behind fence, holding banners or signs
that will be provided. Clothing is almost anything!! Use common sense
and don't wear 'club' outfits or gym clothes. Just wardrobe for a
Political Rally...We will pay CASH of $75 at end of shoot." READ MORE

One thing I'll grant the right wing. They're completely shameless
about crowing over their major achievements which generally involve
situations reasonably expected to end in death.

Pander Bear Jebbie appeared before the NRA Friday to brag about what a
good gun nut he is and why the NRA should love him lots. When he got
around to crowing about Stand Your Ground, I could Stand No More.

"And we built on [the Castle Doctrine], with the principle that you
can stand your ground. In Florida, you can defend yourself anywhere you
have a legal right to be, if you reasonably believe you're in danger of
death or injury or rape or kidnapping," Jeb said.

Well, that's true unless you're black and your name is Trayvon Martin or Marissa Alexander.
Then you either die or go to prison. But of course, Jeb doesn't wish to
speak of these things unless he's in a quiet room somewhere where no
one is listening. READ MORE

Front-line workers at our nation's big banks — tellers, loan
interviewers and customer service representatives — are required by
their employers to exploit customers, according to a revealing report out today from the Center for Popular Democracy
(CPD). Big banks have internal systems of penalties and rewards that
entice employees to push subprime loans and credit cards on customers
who would be better off without them.

Marco Rubio is supposed to be the GOP's Great Hispanic hope, but the polling firm Latino Decisions finds that Hispanics aren't biting:

This past November we asked 4,200 Latinos who voted in the 2014 midterm elections
whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of Rubio. Nationally,
only 31 percent had a favorable view (12 percent "very favorable", and
19 percent "somewhat favorable") while 36 percent hold an unfavorable
opinion of the Senator (22 percent "very unfavorable", and 14 percent
"somewhat unfavorable"), a net of -5....

In competitive states where Latinos comprise a significant share of
the active and eligible electorate, Rubio's numbers remain in negative
territory. In his home-state of Florida--where Latinos are a critical
component to this famously competitive state--Rubio's favorables reach
only 39 percent, compared to 42 percent unfavorable; a -3 net result.
Similarly, his unfavorable share is just over 40 percent in North Carolina and Nevada.... READ MORE